conversation
Conversational interaction
Controlled demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Not disclosed
- Human intervention
- Not disclosed
Research record R-030Prototype
IRON
By XPeng Robotics · China · announced November 2024
The Chinese EV maker's strikingly humanlike biped, famous for a gait so smooth the company cut one open on stage to prove no human was inside.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
IRON is XPeng's flagship humanoid, first shown in November 2024 and re-revealed in far more humanlike form at the company's AI Day on November 5, 2025. The new IRON walks with a catwalk-smooth, hip-swaying gait that immediately spawned accusations of a person in a suit; XPeng responded on stage by cutting open the robot's leg covering to show the machinery. Hong Kong shares rose about nine percent in the aftermath.
XPeng positions IRON as a core business alongside its EVs. CEO He Xiaopeng took direct control of the robotics unit in February 2026, mandating mass production by the end of 2026, and the company broke ground on a 110,000 square meter dedicated humanoid factory in the first quarter of 2026. Claimed specifications are aggressive: 82 degrees of freedom, 22-DoF hands, three of XPeng's Turing AI chips delivering roughly 3,000 TOPS, and a solid-state battery.
Initial deployments are planned for XPeng's own showrooms and factories and industrial partner Baosteel. There is no sales channel, no price and no delivery evidence yet.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Not demonstrated
None; factory under construction as of early 2026
Reality check
Everything public about IRON comes from XPeng events and controlled press showings. The walking is genuinely state of the art; nothing about manipulation, chores or sustained autonomous work has been demonstrated at comparable depth. The end-of-2026 mass production deadline is a CEO mandate, not a shipping product, and mid-2026 trade coverage still describes IRON as in the final stretch before production.
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
2 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Real-world demo; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
entertainment
Catwalk-quality humanlike walking
Real-world demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- None; on-stage teardown performed to dispel suspicion of a human inside
Hardware record.
- Height
- 178 cm
- Weight
- 70 kg
- Locomotion
- Bipedal walking with notably humanlike gait
- Payload
- Not disclosed
- Runtime
- Not disclosed; solid-state battery (claimed)
- Charging
- Not disclosed
- Top speed
- Not disclosed
- Degrees of freedom
- 82 total (claimed)
- Hands
- 22-DoF dexterous hands (claimed)
- Face / expression
- Humanlike head with customizable appearance; female and male body forms shown
- Sensors
- Camera and sensor suite derived from XPeng's driving stack; details not fully published
Software record.
- AI platform
- XPeng Turing AI chips (about 3,000 TOPS across three chips) with in-house VLA models
- Voice
- Conversational interaction demonstrated at events
- Languages
- Chinese and English demonstrated
- Visual recognition
- Claimed; details not published
- Memory
- Not disclosed
- Processing
- Onboard compute emphasized
- Autonomous abilities
- Walking and stage interaction demonstrated; task autonomy not yet shown in depth
- Teleoperation
- Not disclosed
- Software updates
- Not disclosed
- Developer access
- Not announced
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Not disclosed
- Remote operation possible
- Unknown / not disclosed
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Not disclosed
- Camera / microphone controls
- Not disclosed
- Data deletion
- Not disclosed
- Account required
- Not applicable yet
- Emergency stop
- Not disclosed
- Children and pets
- Not disclosed
- Security updates
- Not disclosed
Open questions
Disputed or unverified.
- The $150,000 price estimate is third-party speculation
- Whether end-of-2026 mass production is on track has not been confirmed as of July 2026
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Prototype
First IRON shown at XPeng AI Day
- Public demonstration
Next-generation IRON's humanlike gait goes viral; on-stage cut-open rebuttal
- Prototype
CEO He Xiaopeng takes direct control of robotics; end-2026 mass production mandate
Source register
4 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.